Thursday, March 20, 2014

Lenten devotions: March 26, 2014

March 26, 2014                      Psalm 81
Wednesday                             Jeremiah 2:4-13
                                                John 7:14-31, 37-39

On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus was standing in the temple courtyard. He said loudly, “Whoever is thirsty must come to me to drink.  As Scripture says, ‘Streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me.’”  Jesus said this about the Spirit, whom his believers would receive. The Spirit was not yet evident, as it would be after Jesus had been glorified.

Can you imagine what it must have been like back then?  A man named Jesus standing in the temple courtyard and yelling “Whoever is thirsty must come to me to drink!”  What?  Would you think, “This person must be crazy!”?
Back then, it was all still unfolding.  Nobody knew who Jesus was.  Christ hadn’t died on the cross yet.  He hadn’t sent the Holy Spirit to us (John 14:16).  Scriptures hadn’t been written.  Nobody knew what was about to happen.  
As believers, let us go back to that time and think about what it was like then and where we are today, thanks be to God.  Christ died for us on the cross, the curtain in the temple was torn in two and we got total access to God that day.  Let’s be thankful for the great mystery of “God in us,” the Holy Spirit working in us, and flowing out of us like streams of water into others and our community.  We have so much to be thankful for in Christ.


Lynn Byrnes

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